A Paleo conundrum

I decided to try Paleo maybe a year and a half ago. I got serious about it within the past 12 months. My husband has never been on board and continues eating the way he always has, TERRIBLY. He is a cherry coke addicted, PB&J, frozen pizza, pasta, hold ALLL the vegetables kind of guy. And he smokes cigarettes to boot. The conundrum I find with the difference between us is that he is a high energy, super slim guy despite his diet. He doesn't drag throughout the day. He can go, go, go and work, work, work work with no problems. When he can only catch 5 hours of sleep some nights it doesn't phase him the next day. These are all reasons he doesn't feel the need to change his diet. He feels fine and has zero health problems. I convinced him to go get his labs drawn at the doctor thinking, at 32 and eating so terribly, his labs would prove he was unhealthy despite the way he felt. And if his labs came back bad maybe than he would eat better. Of course, doc gave him "5 stars" on his lab results which even further pushed him to have no motivation/reasoning to eat better. Now on the complete other hand, I've been eating organic for about five years and Paleo for about one. And I. Am. A. Mess. I'm constantly tired, my energy is low most days without the assistance of coffee. My anxiety is through the roof. If I were to only get 5 hours of sleep I would feel like death the next day. I don't get it?! It's as if though I eat like him and vice versa! Seeing the way I constantly feel I think is the real kicker as to why he is like, "no thanks!" to the Paleo diet. He makes comments about it sometimes when I try to convince him to eat better. "I feel great, you always feel terrible. Maybe it's YOUR diet." I just don't understand why he feels great and I don't, when I eat MILES better than him. Sometimes I wonder if the stress of this diet is what makes me feel terrible. I constantly worry about his future health (he can't feel great eating like this forever!), it was a strain switching my kids over in a split house. I constantly worry about what other people feed my kids (ahem, grandma). And it is a constant stressor to me the amount of information I read on a daily basis that seems to be always changing. When I read one thing is great for you, it seems the next week I read its toxic! (Ie. I just heard cacao was toxic after reading it was a superfood, I also read that reheating veggies was toxic, something I have to do to survive as a busy family of 5 sometimes). And the cost to maintain Paleo stresses me out since I stay home and we only have 1 income. My husband is a completely stress free individual by nature. Everything rolls off his should like butter on a hot knife. Is this the real difference maker between the way we each feel despite our diets? Is the stress of eating Paleo/healthy counteracting the benefits of it for me? Any thoughts and advice is appreciated!

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Answers

Who says paleo is the best and only correct way to eat? Maybe he is right, maybe your diet is not appropriate for you. If you feel like crap after switching to paleo, you should consider that what you're doing now is not optimal.

Stress is a huge factor in health. Your constant stress is a drag on your overall health. Just as his carefree attitude benefits his own.

Curious, why are you even eating paleo? You ought to have a good reason for it.